Metallica: 'Our next album will be a heavier Black Album'

Metallica have said that they believe their next studio album will be a "heavier version" of their classic 1991 self-titled album, which is widely known as 'The Black Album'.

The band are currently working on the follow-up to their 2008 studio record 'Death Magnetic' and have revealed that they are about eight songs into the process.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, guitarist Kirk Hammett said that the band were looking to reign in their songwriting and write tracks that were "more groove-oriented''.

He said: "If 'Death Magnetic' was a logical successor to '…And Justice For All', the next album will be a heavier 'Black Album'. We're not going to the depths of complexity that we did for 'Death Magnetic'. The stuff we're coming up with is more groove-oriented, a heavier version of what we were doing in the early 90s."

The band's drummer Lars Ulrich also said that he was sure the songs on the band's 10th studio album would be ''shorter and more to-the-point''.

He said: "When people talk about the old stuff, they think '... Justice'. But look at 'Harvester Of Sorrow' on that album. It's a fairly simple five-minute song. And 'Fuel' is an absolute scorcher live. Right now, I'm thinking shorter, more to-the-point."

Metallica will play a headline slot at this summer's Download Festival as well as a series of other large European shows, performing 'The Black Album' in its entirety.

The band's manager Cliff Burnstein recently revealed that Metallica had brought their plans to tour Europe forward by a full year to coincide with the ongoing Euro crisis.

You can watch a video of Metallica's 10 best songs by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.